1. Field
Embodiments relate to an apparatus, method, and medium for a multi-touch decision, and more particularly, to a multi-touch decision apparatus, method, and medium by which single touch and multi touch operations can be discriminated from each other, thereby facilitating implementation of a multi-finger user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
In designing a multi-finger user interface, it is necessary to identify and analyze the various kinds of operations that can be performed by a user's hands, such as a single touch, or multiple touches. In particular, discriminating a single touch operation from a multi touch operation is a fundamental issue in the multi-finger user interface.
Conventionally, in order to implement a multi-finger user interface, computation of multi-touch locations is enabled by changing the system configuration of a single-touch sensor, rather than directly using the single-touch sensor without any change in the configuration. That is to say, changing the hardware configuration has made it possible to discriminate a single touch from multiple touches, but has resulted in a cost increase due to the use of additional modules, and procedural inefficiency due to the change in the hardware configuration.
Another conventional sensor for identifying the position of a contact point is a 2-D capacitive position sensor, which has been proposed to implement a multi-finger user interface by changing the arrangement of and algorithm of sensing channels having a predetermined structure, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-049978. However, the disadvantage of this technique is that accurate determination of the number of contact points is required for implementation of the algorithm for sensing channels.
Accordingly, there exists a substantial demand for advanced 2-D capacitive position sensors for use in small-sized mobile terminal equipment, which can discriminate a single touch operation from a multi touch operation, thereby facilitating implementation of a multi-finger user interface.